Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee

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By IGN Staff

No preview of Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee would be complete if we didn't direct you to these very important stories that IGN has done along the way. You can read the impressions that follows the game's development and then hop down to the full preview below to refresh your memory on all things Odd.

Preview: One of two titles unveiled with the announcement of the Xbox, Oddworld is already up and running on Xbox hardware. Action, adventure, machine-gunning soda machines... everything's here. Of course, we'll have to wait until the console launches to get the game in our hands, but you can believe that by the time it does, Munch's world will be delivered in just the way the Oddworld team hoped. Of course, while everyone's been obsessing about Munch's transition from PS2 to Xbox, we here at IGN Xbox can't help but wonder how the hell Abe, Munch and their pals got themselves in such a prestigious position in the first place.

Munch and his friendly wheelchair.

Abe's Oddysee defied all practical logic. Why anyone in the video game publishing industry would think that a title based on themes of genocide, corporate enslavement, ecological destruction and flatulance would sell to kids, teens and gamers is news to me -- especially when it's being sold as a black comedy. But we should be thankful that it did. Somehow the people at Oddworld Inhabitants squeaked the game through GT Interactive with its spirit intact, and changed the way people looked at storytelling, and the video game medium in general. Not only did they impress GT, but then became Infogrames baby when the GT Interactive was picked up by the large French company. And now Microsoft has stepped in, undoubtedly unloaded some serious cash, and did what Sony should have done with Crash, Metal Gear, and Spyro -- done whatever it took to ensure that the entire Oddworld series would become Xbox exclusive. Boom! Instant fanbase and franchise. All this for the king of klutz.

Abe is beyond an anti-hero, he's the subject of atrocities, a goofy klutz who unwittingly becomes a hero for his entire race simply by avoiding his own death. He's perfect. In a time period when action heroes have reached superhuman status, it's a welcome change to play the alien version of Steve Martin's Jerk. And now, with the official sequel Munch's Oddysee well underway, we'll finally peek at one of Oddworld's other residents -- and so far, it isn't any prettier, but it's a whole lot more beautiful. Lorne Lanning, Cofounder/President of Oddworld, has already christened the game "a gene splicing of Action, Adventure, RPG, Strategy, and emulation, with Hollywood storytelling and production value sprinkled all over it," and if you've seen any of the movies and screens of the game, you're probably ready to swallow the pitch hook, line and sinker. While the PS2 version looked pretty, the PC screens of the game showed off a new 3D world in a resolution so crisp that you'd have to squint to tell the difference between pre-rendered scenes and the in-game footage, and the team promises that with the power of the Xbox, that's going to be the final version to grace your screens. But that's all window dressing for the new plotline, involving the introduction of a new species to Oddworld universe.

It's pretty obvious at this point that the Oddworld team has become confidant that people are willing to play a game filled with such darkly humorous themes. Now that they've become more comfortable with the subject matter, they're ready to take another step in an even murkier direction. Munch is a Gabbit, an amphibious creature and the last of his kind on the planet. Unfortunately, his race's lungs were the perfect transplant organs for the cancer-ridden lungs of cigar-smoking Glukkons, and so now he's left as the last of his entire race. He currently resides as a test subject in a pharmaceutical testing company, where Abe frees him, and forces him to join him in his struggles to free the Mudokon mom. Munch will spend the first part of the game in the care of Abe, as he's relegated to a wheelchair until he's healed up his broken leg (yep, that's singular). Like Abe, Munch has a special ability -- Vykker scientists have implanted him with an interface port that allows him to control mechanical objects, much the same way that Abe can control other characters and creatures.

Though the new adventure will carry some of the attributes of the Abe games (such as puzzle solving, sneaking, and strategy), you'll be interacting within a much larger world in Munch. Characters will have full life cycles, and there have been hints that Munch will spend a good deal of time in the game breeding and conditioning creatures to affect the larger game. The shots of roving bands of Scrabs and harvesting Mudokons seem to point to a larger ecosystem where small events can have a larger effect, and Lanning would like the impression to be that way. If the Oddworld team has their way, then Munch will be a thriving world that you'll want to come back and visit often, long after you've beaten the game. "It will be more like visiting Oddworld than playing Oddworld," says Lanning.

Still, the classic Oddworld experience will still be there. While the world is in 3D, the gameplay concept movies, and the demo we saw at E3 definitely showed that Munch and Abe are still very much about sneaking, dirty tricks, and getting the jump on their foes. Abe will still be able to use his mind control abilities to take over a multitude of enemies, including a huge Big Brother Slig that shoots consumer products out of his gun rather than bullets. Abe will be able to harness a Karmic weapon that delivers the ultimate retribution to his enemies, rather than killing them. Of course, on top of all the piece and love, Abe will still be doing necessary evils like throwing Sligs into vending machines... but sometimes a Mudokon's got to do what a Mudokon's got to do. Abe and Munch will work together for a section of the game, with Munch in a wheelchair, and Abe pushing him around. Munch will soon be able to zoom around on his own, and later in the game, take to the waters where he'll be able to swim around as fast as a dolphin, something the Oddworld team showed off in a demonstration in August. Abe will also be able to gain access to special abilities from vending machines, like a speed drink to let him run at incredible speeds, a product that will allow him to jump higher than ever before, and most interesting, a special item that will allow him to walk on steep surfaces and walls. That's good ol' consumerism, for you. When is Life cereal going to allow me to walk through walls, though?

The game also keeps with a certain anti-frustration philosophy that stems from the team's annoyance at the camera and control of most 3D games. The most noticeable aspect of that is the fact that the camera is computer controlled, rather than controlled by the player. While you'd expect a Tomb Raider type perspective, it's actually more comparable to the first Dino Crisis than anything else, but with even more active camera changes. At E3 this year we had a chance to see the game in motion, including camera, and the effect removed a lot of the clutter that plagues many 3D games. As Abe would near a special object such as a switch, the camera would pull in and focus on the object. As he ran away, the camera would smoothly rise up and pull out to give you a greater view of the scenery. Like Metal Gear Solid, it works well to give you details without confusing the action in any way.

The team's also implemented some other interesting tricks, as well. Instead of hunting for a switch's exact location to use it, for instance (something that makes me personally want to throw most platform games out the window), you'll only have to get near a special an object, button, or switch and press an action button. Abe or Munch (depending on who you're playing) will walk over and do the rest. The same goes for the clumsy wall crashes that happen when you're trying to navigate a 3D space. If you're running at full speed, your character will veer out of the way if you're about to run into a wall. If you slow down however, and walk, you'll be able to reach the wall with no problem. It sounds simple, but it ends up making the entire experience a little nicer on the eyes than the stumbling, fumbling actions we're used to with most 3D platformers.

GameSpeak, the utility that allows the characters in Abe to speak to each other, will also reflect the larger scope of Munch. As with a lot of details regarding the game, the team won't illustrate exactly how GameSpeak will work in Munch, but they have mentioned that there will be a larger variety of commands, and even greater interaction between characters.

The larger scope of Munch fits in perfectly with the Oddworld Quintology. "Metophorically speaking, the Quintology started off with Abe in the diamond mines of south Africa, but he will end up in a massive city of consumerism like New York or Hong Kong," says Lanning. A while back, Lanning talked about the fact that each new chunk of the series would have to go to the next-generation up in the system chain in order to show off the worlds that were planned, but now things have changed, and he seems pretty confident that the Xbox will be able to handle the entire quintology. For more information, make sure to check out his frank and informative interview about these and other Oddworld matters on the Oddworld website.

And while you're getting excited about Munch, let's not forget Oddworld: The Hand of Odd, an online multiplayer game that will let you explore the Oddworld universe with other gamers from around the globe. While this online component is still just in the design stages, you can be pretty certain that it's not being forgotten for the Xbox, a system shaping up to be decidedly online-focused. It's a perfect fit, and yet another way to look forward to gaming with your friends in a drastically different way than the fighting games, racing games, and sports titles you'll be able to play online on the system.

The nice thing about the Oddworld games is that even if you didn't enjoy the Abe games, you may fall in love with Munch, or if not, then Squeek's Oddysee, the third title in the series. The team is crafting a new experience every time you start up a new adventure, each one larger and more complex than the last. Oddworld is supposedly ten times the size of Earth, and according to the team, we've only visited one small country. As long as the Glukkons don't destroy the planet before the series' end, it looks like we'll be spending a lot of time in Oddworld for years to come -- and now we've got some guaranteed fun to look forward to for the life of the Xbox.